This blog is one of those for people building or using a RepRap self-replicating rapid-prototyping machine to log their comments, experiences, and suggestions. The RepRap homepage is at http://reprap.org.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Lego Bricks in Action!

After a series of setbacks... (no video software, my camera finally needed that tape cleaner that's been tucked away in the box for 3 years, and then the wrong software/codecs...)

I had to glue down a guide piece; one of the axles still isn't quite straight (but the wobble has transfered to the now only partially attached motor... not sure how/if I'll reattach that, but it's secured on one of the two motor tabs, and it seems to be holding... It worked itself loose after I glued the guide piece down, and that tab slowly moves 'towards/away' a mm or two. This is the 'upper' axis, moving perpendicular to the camera.) My biggest problem with these is just getting a good connection between the motor and the axle... I'm using some Lego Bricks to do it, so they're true to the axle itself, but the motor itself had to be ground a little to fit, and it's not quite solid...)

The Z axis just plain didn't work... It's gone back to the drawing board, but maybe I'll have better luck with the actual pieces in front of me. The issue was that the axle wasn't 'solid' enough, and over the inch and a half or so that it spanned, it had enough give to move away from the rack pieces... I'm trying to come up with a better design; maybe with a guide block on either side of the rack piece to help hold the axle tight against it...

The only major hurtle I have left is figuring out how to get the two little controls on the operator's workstation to move in sync with the axis :)